or tomatoes, or beans, or corn...
Well I'm here today to help you with this late summer dilemma...and no we are not going to leave zucchini on all the neighbor's doorsteps. I certainly would not do such a thing...well, rarely.
Of course my first suggestion is to eat as much fresh as possible. Go out to your garden each morning to see what you have ripening. Use this list to make your meal plans for the day...

How To Store Vegetables

Cook "Em Up!

1. If you have an over abundance of spinach make a spinach salad or spinach lasagna with eggplant if you have them.
2. Tomatoes are good fresh, juiced, and roasted over pasta or french bread.
3. Roast extra bell peppers for adding to pasta sauce, pizza, or eat them straight from the BBQ...my favorite!
4. Make zucchini bread or use them in pasta salads.

Preserve for Winter

5. There is no end to the different recipes for using fresh from the garden produce, but...if you have just too many to use and your friends have stopped answering when you call to give them squash, then we move onto preserving these goodies for winter!
The easiest way of preserving food in my opinion is simply freezing it.Each year I seriously over plant zucchini...I know original huh? When my family cannot eat one more bite that contains this summer squash I freeze the extra.

I simply shred it and put 3 cups in each freezer bag, take out the air and flatten and throw it in the deep freeze. All I have to do in December is pull out a bag, thaw and have the exact amount I need for a double batch of zucchini bread. Which by the way, my family seems to appreciate more in the dead of winter...go figure!

Although most veggies are easy to freeze, most will not have the same texture as they do fresh. So be prepared to use your vegges in cooked dishes, not raw. Here is a greatsite from Oregon State University about freezing both fruits and veggies.

In the above pic I'm roasting homegrown peppers on the bbq to peel, slice and freeze for winter pizzas!

Dehydrating Fruits and Veggies

6. Next in line for ease is dehydrating fruits and veggies. If you live in a hot dry climate this might actually be the easiest but if you are like me it involved either a dehydrator or low oven. Drying involves taking the moisture out of the produce so it will not decay. Things that have been dehydrated are great for homemade granola and trail mix, throwing in soups, and re-hydrating for use in dishes. You can even dry onions and garlic to grind into powders for homemade seasonings!

Here is a greatlink that has information of drying food...it even includes plans for building your own solar dehydrator!

Canning

7. Finally there is canning...ohhh you can make some wonderful things in a hot water bath canner! Jams, jellies, pickles, ketchup, salsa...the list is simply endless.

Canning is certainly the most expensive and time consuming of all the preservation types, but there is simply nothing like a pantry full of home canned goodies to make your dark days of winter a little brighter!

Canning also involves a bit of knowledge to keep food safe. For the beginner I always recommend starting with something easy like jam. Fruit, sugar, pectin and a few jars in a hot water canner is all that is needed to be very successful at jam and jelly making. Vegetables require a bit more know how and sometimes a pressure cooker for good food safety but many local extension offices have handouts or classes on safe canning. Here is alinkfor the National Center for Home Food Preservation that is a wealth of information on canning. Once you learn to can you just may find it simply addictive, I know I did!

Be creative with all the homegrown goodness, cook, freeze, dry, can, and enjoy the bounty from your garden! So what about you?

Kim is a small organic farmer who lives in the Pacific Northwest raising organic fruits, veggies, critters, kids, and a camel! She blogs atthe inadvertent farmer where she dishes on living the authentic country life. She also hosts a yearly summer-long series and contest called KinderGARDENS that is aimed at instilling the love of gardening to the next generation believing that dirty hands make for healthy happy kids!

Comments

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What nice pictures and abundance you do have . I'm afraid our garden didn't do so good- we only had 1-2 potatoes under the plants right now- but perhaps still early to look at?
Other veggies are small.
We had a few hail storms too this year and that killed our tomato plants.
Sharing with family and friends always puts a smile on the face of the recipient though- free food- and garden fresh- so those with excess be sure to share and make someone's day!

I've been making tons of spaghetti sauce with all my tomatoes and then freezing it for winter. I just blogged about it the other day. I'm also up to about 8 bags of tomato basil soup and black bean tomato soup that I've frozen for winter. I've got bags of shredded zucchini in the freezer and corn that I've cut off the cob. I never thought to roast the peppers, though, for pizza! My husband will be thrilled with that! Thank you and great post!

Glad to see this infor. Keep in mind, zucchini has a mild taste, after you peel it and grate it finely, you can add it to CUPCAKES, to add moisture and vitamins.........After you peel it, seed it and slice it, you can make mock apple pie, there are recipes on line. My friend Shirley loved to make that, and play a little joke on her friends :)...........And how about chocolate chip zucchini bread? Yum yum.

I'm super-lazy so my favorite garden extra to preserve is tomatoes. I put a bunch of tomatoes straight into a freezer bag and stick it in the freezer. No prep whatsoever. When ready to use, take tomato out of the bag, run some cold water over it, and the skin seriously just pops right off. Toss frozen tomato straight into whatever soup or sauce you're making.

Should've read Judy's post first, I agree that quick and easy is the way to go for me too! Haven't had enough tomatoes to say they were "excess" for freezing but I'd definitely try this method if I had a stockpile of them.